I am 26 years old and have no history of asthma.

I developed a cold this week, symptoms mainly in my head. It was one of the worst colds I've ever had, I was tired and also had a fever and headache. After about three days it suddenly moved into my chest. I was coughing a lot, could barely breathe and would wheeze after walking more than 50 ft. I went to emergency care and was given a breathing tx and chest xray. The doc diagnosed me w/ asthmatic bronchitis and prescribed a 5 day course of azithromycin, methylprednisolone, albuterol inhaler, and cough syrup w/ codeine for sleeping.

I assumed that I was sick solely due to this cold, but the diagnosis of asthmatic bronchitis surprises me. Does this mean that I had asthma and never knew? Is the asthma or the bronchitis going to be chronic? I have never had either before.

I'm so glad I found this post! Just reading it already has helped me calm down.
Whenever I get a cold anymore it seems like it goes to my chest and I can't get over it on my own. It gets tight and nothing but an antibiotic helps. Last week I started feeling "tight" in my chest and wheezing. My cough sounded dry and horrible. I went to my doctor and he put me on methylprednisolone 4mg. It helped my wheezing a little bit but my chest still felt tight and my cough still deep and dry. I have this weird little pain in my upper right side of my back too. I went back to my doctor and he put me on azithromycin 250 mg. and took a chest x-ray (haven't gotten the results back yet). That was several days ago and today I still feel tight and deep coughing. I have been taking Mucinex expectorant too, drinking lots of water and hot tea. I am NOT taking breathing treatments or anything like albuteral, etc. I have a mitral valve prolapse problem and things like that speed my heart rate up sooooo much it scares me. Even the steriods did for the first 2 days. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get this stuff loosened up inside me? I have panic attacks too and this breathing thing makes me really panic and worry! How long do these episodes last - days, weeks, longer?